'Welcome to Facebook, your new job': High school students will spend four weeks learning ins and outs of social network

By Bonnie Eslinger

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
07/02/2012 07:22:59 PM PDT

Updated:
07/03/2012 12:36:21 AM PDT

When the 10 East Palo Alto students selected to participate in Facebook's inaugural high school internship program stepped off the shuttle bus Monday morning for their first day at the social network company's headquarters, they looked a little awe-struck.

Several television news cameras caught their arrival as Susan Gonzales, head of Community Engagement for Facebook, led them into one of the nine buildings on the sprawling Menlo Park campus at the corner of Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road.

"Welcome to Facebook, your new job," Gonzales said, greeting them with a smile. "We hope this will change your life."

Talofa Feao, a tall 17-year-old dressed in a black T-shirt, khaki shorts and athletic shoes, said he was "excited, very excited" about being selected for the internship.

"It's a new experience," said Feao, who just finished his junior year at the Sequoia Community Day School, an alternative campus for at-risk students. "And I'm hoping to learn some tech skills."

The four-week high school internship program -- called Facebook Academy -- is one of the "public benefits" the company promised to deliver in exchange for Menlo Park's permission to let it eventually employ more than 6,000 people on the former Sun Microsystems campus.

Yolanda Mendoza, who will be a junior at East Palo Alto Academy this fall, said she "yelled for like five seconds straight" when she got the call saying she was accepted for the program.

"It's nice that they're investing in us," said the 16-year-old, who wore a pink top, jeans and sparkled pink loafers.

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After putting on company badges so they could walk around the high-security campus, the teens were led to a cafeteria for breakfast and told employees get free meals.

After eating with Facebook employees assigned to be their mentors, the high school students posed for a class picture and went on a campus tour.

Kerrie Ashley, 31, an IT department employee with tattooed arms and several facial piercings, said she was looking forward to supporting the students and showing the young women "that they can be in the tech industry."

Strolling along the walkway at the center of the nine-building complex, Gonzales pointed out clusters of beach-style cruisers along the way.

"If you're ever late for a meeting you can just jump on a bike and ride across campus," she said.

Inside, the students walked through Facebook's industrial-style offices of exposed ceiling fixtures, white walls, graffiti-like murals and splashes of color. Employees work on laptops in clusters at long tables.

"People don't have offices," Gonzales said. "So they can collaborate."

Zoe McKenna, who will be a junior at Menlo-Atherton High School this coming year, said she was as worried about getting lost on the campus as she was in awe of the interactive map monitors that can spot everything from employee desks to unoccupied conference areas.

"I thought this stuff only existed in movies," she said.

During their summer at Facebook, the students will learn about information technology and other aspects of the business including marketing and Internet security, said Facebook spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Their first assignment: design the internship program's logo.

"There are Ivy League students who would tear each other apart for this opportunity," said David Mack, an outside public relations consultant.

To recruit the students, Facebook partnered with Foundation for College Education, an East Palo Alto nonprofit that also gave each intern a $500 stipend.

By mid-day, Feao said Facebook was his dream job.

"I wouldn't have thought any of this existed, just how laid back and carefree everyone is," Feao said. "And they still seem like they're really into their work."